The Press. SATURDAY, AUGUST 91, 1907. HAS THE GLORY DEPARTED?

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12897, 31 August 1907, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY, AUGUST 91, 1907. HAS THE GLORY DEPARTED?

England has for so long held the. supremacy in games and sports of nearly every kind that the recent experience of seeing ono championship after another taken away by competi-ovor-seas has g_ven something of a shook to many stolid and self-com-plaooent Britons, who had got almost in tho habit of thinking that it has been ordered by Divine Providence that England shall bo first on the Ben. first in games, and first in commerce. The successes oF tho New Zealanders ami tho South Africans _n tho football field, and of tho Australians and South Africans in what was pre-eminently tho ■English national game of cricket, wore forgiven because in those case* tho victors were still Britons—still members ot tho Empfiro, although they came from over-seas. So, too, when in lown tennis tho'Davis Cup was carried off by tho Australasian pair, Brookes and Wilding. Tho same oonsolation was not available when tho open golf championship was carried off by a Frenchman, Arn.iud _Msssey, when _ lbs Sutton, an Amertcan, defeated tho English lady champion at lawn tennis, when Jay Gould, another American, conquered Mr Eustace Miles, tho English tennis champion, and, unkindest cut of all, when a Belgian crew .defoated tho crack English amateur crew, tho Leandcrs, at Henley. In sculling and boxing, the champ-onshipa havo long been held elsewhere than in thoi' land whore these •ports may be said to have first

b<?en brought to a high pitch of excellence, and in other branches of athletics the Mother Country has now to be content

reflections on by-gone glories rather than tho contemplation of any present distinction. In tho searching of spirit which has ensued upon this rather woeful state of affairs, tho first question which English wi iters have put to themselves is whether it shows physical degeneracy on tho part of the nation. On this point they aro able to reassure themselves. A writer in "Tho Times" remarks that Neiv Zealand and South African football players, who had excellent opportunities of studying th© home-grown athletes, always denied that tb« teams they defeated so easily were comparatively lacking in physique. The Canadian lactosso playors, who did not lose a single match during their recent tour, admitted that the Englishmen they met were their equals, sometimes their superiors, in all tho physical qualities —pace, strength, quickness of hand and eye, etc., and were of opinion that Englishmen would soon bo able to hold their own, if they played th© gam© in .summer instead of winter. What both •' The Times'' and th© "Daily Telegraph (which devotes a leader to the subject,) admit, however, is that while England first led the way in sport 6as in trade, sho has been content to keep in the old ruts, to hold fast to old stereotyped methods, while younger competitors who learned from her have bettered their instruction and brought more scientific thought, more concentrated training, to th© work of breaking English records. Tho writer in I " Tho Times" gives several illustrations ranging from th© resourceful ingenuity of Mr John L. Sullivan in perfecting tho "knock-out blow" on tho point of tho chin, to the evolution of the "puJl" in cricket and tho new developments in atratogy and taotios of the New Zealand footballers. Then tho overseas

competitors specialise in games more than Englishmen do. A crack American college baseball player docs not attempt to shino in football, and "The Times" contributor is convinced that Miss Sutton would not have beaten the English lady champion at tennis if, liko Miss Lottie Dod, sho had striven to becoino a mistress of the altogether different gamo of golf. Of course thissort of thing tends to mako a "grind" and a toil of games which ought to be a plea-suro, but it undoubtedly oonducee to victory. And is it not the same luck of initiative, the eamo want of specialisation which is now seriously threatening British supremacy in trade and manufactures P We believe that it is, and that unless Englishmen "wake up" tho ultimate consequences will be more serious than the loss of championships in games. There is another oonfession made by tho "Daily Telegraph" which also has its serious aspect, if Ht is true. Our contemporary fears that there is a "slackness" about young Englishmen of the present day — that too many of them are not "dead-keen" about anything in particular. It is a consequence of being able to enjoy the fruit of the accumulated prosperity of the last generation. "The result is that " tho lines of the modern young man | "havo been cast in pleasant places, " and the instinct of 7 exertion begins to " decay in him. He hates effort- and " tho appearance of it, and is apt to " imagine that a hard worker, whose " manners are seldom graceful, must "bo more or less of a prig. He loves the " life at ease which enables him, as " long as it lasts, to make a delightful " figure. Without his little luxuries ho " is not willing to exist, and his cigar- " ctto becomes as inseparable from his " lips as if Nature had made it a per- " manont addition to his profile." Of courso, if this sort of thing is not checked, it must tend to national decay. We are not sure that tho first symptoms of the trouble aro not present with us in this colony. There is a frequent complaint that the younger generation of Now Zealanders do not Bhow the same "grit" and desire for work that characterised their fathers who mado the now "Dominion" what it is. It is true that our young men go Home nnd distinguish themselves in games, nt tho universities, in tho various professions. These, however, are tho pick of tho community—tho really strenuous ones who feel that they must make their way at any cost. In the majority of cases it will be found that they aro young men who have to rely entirely on their own resources to make their way in tho world. There ia wisdom, borne out by experience, in our Fnglish contemporary's remark that every man who counts in tho world must be self-made. "We are created " by the processes of personal experi- " enco through which we pass. Wo "shape our work, but our work in the " doing shapes ourselves, and it is not "in any man's power to make the boy " he most loves nnd is most ambitious " for by tho facilities of an indulgent " cheque-book what that boy would " have become by passing in some way "or another through tho mill. If we " make existence too easy for those " who are to come after us, let us not " think we are kind. There is a moral " hero for all fathers who are not too "old, nnd for all sous who aro young."